Co-minding in partnership or as self-employed?

[Caseyb]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post but I have been able to learn so much from this forum already and I'm really hoping you can help me again now!

I have just started childminding in the last couple of months, from July a friend of mine will be working with me as my assistant while she goes through the registration process to become a childminder herself and then we are planning on working together from my house.

I understand that while she's my assistant she can work as a self employed contractor so that she deals with her own tax etc, and she just has to be 'available to work elsewhere' for this to be allowed. However, once she is co-minding with me we will be advertisig as being 2 childminders working together and so it would be pretty obvious that she is not available to work anywhere else so would we still be able to keep her as a self-employed contractor or would we have to become an official partnership? Are there any negatives to becoming a partnership from a tax prospective. I really don't want to go through the hassle of registering as an employer and having to pay NI contributions and all of that jazz. We just want to both be self-employed and handle our own taxes.

If there are any co-minders out there who can help me get my head around this then I would be extremely grateful, its driving me a bit mad trying to work it out

[sarah707]

You really need to ring the tax office and talk about your specific circumstances.

Write down exactly what they say, who you spoke to etc... and ring a few days later to check you get the same advice.

Good luck with it all!

[chriss]

I know this post was a while ago but did you get any advice on this ?

[LittleRabbits]

I am also in the process of registering as a friend to both be childminders working together and I am trying to work it out how we will work tax pay and wages etc to the best solution...

[chriss]

Other co-minders out there ? What percentage of income is reasonable to take for the childminding household bills ? i know 33% can be claimed for tax, but on a day to day basis what would other co-minders think reasonable. and how do you work it all out > Help needed please as its only fair both minders make the same money, but the house expenses should not leave that minder losing money if you see what I mean

[LittleRabbits]

We will be sharing what we earn equally as long as we work same hrs and then we will be paying money to her parents towards the extra bills. I think we might be working out our income on a month to month basis depending on what we work and how much total income.